The Shameful Menshevik-Narodnik Bloc withYedinstvo

Published:PravdaNo. 68, June 10 (May 28), 1917.

      Published according to the text inPravda.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1964,

      Moscow,Volume 24,

      pages531-532.Translated:Isaacs BernardTranscription\Markup:B. BagginsandD. WaltersPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      1999

      (2005).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.

Todayis the second and principal day of the elections, The most
      importunate in offering themselves to the electorate, besides
      the Cadets, are the united Mensheviks and Narodniks.

Whatanswer did they have to our accusation concerning their
      shameful bloc withYedinstvo?Are they prepared to
      defend this bloc on grounds ofprinciple?

Theyarenot.

Inreply to our suggestion that the bloc withYedinstvowas a disgrace,Rabochaya Gazetaquotes the example
      of—whom would you think?—of the agent provocateur
      Malinovsky and of his being smuggled into the Duma by the secret
      police!

Thedishonesty of such a “method” of controversy is dealt with
      elsewhere[in this edition]in aseparate
paragraph.[1]Here we are concerned
      with “Rabochaya Gazeta’s”logicrather than its
      dishonesty. Look what you do, gentlemen! You parry our reference
      to “your”Yedinstvoby a counter-reference to “our”
      agent provocateur Malinovsky! What is the inference? The
      inference is that you considerYedinstvoon a par with
      an agent provocateur!

Thatis how the wise heads ofRabochaya Gazeta“defend”
      the bloc withYedinstvo.Very clever of them, to be
      sure. When told that theyhaveinfreeRussia
      such a disgraceful colleague as Plekhanov’sYedinstvo,
      theyanswer: And the Bolsheviks, intsaristRussia,hadthe agent provocateur Malinovsky! Isn’t
      this a gem of a defence?

DyeloNaroda, too, has put its toot into it in regard
      toYedinstvo.On May 27, the first day of the
      elections, this paper of Kerensky, Chernov and Co. carried a
      front-page appeal to votefor the lists in which “Yedinstvo”
      is smuggled in.

Andon thesecondpage of the same issue ofDyelo
      Narodawe read a lengthy denunciation of the
      “social-patriot” Plekhanov and hisYedinstvo,
      containing, among others, the following “vitriolic remark”:

“Wewill gladly inform our readers what other liberal- and
      social-imperialist—‘Rech’, ‘Russkaya Volya’and‘Yedinsstvo’—think about the Italian annexation [of
      Albania].”

“Wewill gladly inform our readers what other liberal- and
      social-imperialist—‘Rech’, ‘Russkaya Volya’and‘Yedinsstvo’—think about the Italian annexation [of
      Albania].”

Agem, is it not?

The“Socialist-Revolutionaries” call on the people to vote for
      lists in which the candidates ofYedinstvoare
      concealed, thevery same “Yedinstvo”which the
      Socialist-Revolutionaries themselves, and on election day at
      that, call ’social imperialist”, i.e., socialist in word and
      ’imperialist in deed”, the very sameYedinstvowhich
      they identify withRechandRusskaya Volya.

ThewiseRabochaya Gazeta, in a blocwith the wiseDyelo Naroda, has certainly “defended”Yedinstvotoday.

AndPlekhanov accepts alms from people who “accidentally”
      compare him with Malinovsky, or, on election day, openly declare
      him to be a “social-imperialist”.

Suchis the exhibition which this disgraceful bloc of the
      Mensheviks plus Narodniks plusYedinstvois making of
      itself.

Workersand soldiers! All toiling people! Not a single vote to
      the Narodniks and Mensheviks, who are trying to drag in the
      “social-imperialists”!

Votefor the Bolsheviks!

[1][PLACEHOLDER.]—Lenin